


Loyalty

by JohnHHolliday (Methleigh)



Category: 19th Century US RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-21
Updated: 2012-05-21
Packaged: 2017-11-05 17:42:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Methleigh/pseuds/JohnHHolliday





	Loyalty

Apparently: "Loyalty (is) the cardinal tenet of (my) perverted creed."  
How is my creed perverted? I feel anger rising in me once again - not hurt, but anger.  
How can one equate loyalty with perversion?  
Anger and pride.  
Loyalty is a core principle of honour, and if the hard shining diamond of my loyalty to my friends is the valuable thing that has remained from the shambles of my life; if that is what remains to define it to others, so be it.   
  
In truth, it is not so easy to talk about loyalty as I expected. I would say it is like breathing, but I have a great deal more to say on that subject for it is more difficult for me. Friends. They are what I value most. I say honour is everything. I say pride is a virtue. I say many such things. But in the end life is being worthy of friends and being someone who can inspire them similarly to aspire to worthiness. And that is loyalty. It is trusting the value of your friends to the point where you would stand for them in the face of loss of life or reputation or health or love. It is living so as to be worthy of that in them. And there are the other rewards that rise from loyalty, especially mutual loyalty - collaboration, companionship, comfort should one need it. And there is the offer of that to your friends. Sometimes there is no one, but it is still one's responsibility to be worthy, should they manifest themselves to be so recognised by chance or agency. And it is still one's responsibility to be worthy if life demands loyalty to those who have not recognised one's value. Though if, despite everything, they would offer betrayal, they are not worthy and lose all rights. There is only one other reason to live, now that I think of it:

To be loyal to the future and the goal that the future should be good and a reality in which it is worth living.

If I were not loyal, I would be worthless. If you are not loyal, you are worthless. I do not know how people can live so. People say they do not like themselves. People say they do not want to do the things they do. Why would anyone be as they do not think best, when they have a choice of every word they speak and every action they take, and those words and actions are what creates them. It is what we do and say that creates us, in final analysis. Of course they are who they want to be. Of course they do as they want. If they are not loyal, it is that what they want is disloyalty.

Friends. Without their inspiration to loyalty, life is impossible.


End file.
